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Trips of a Lifetime

Our friend Kika is a long-term resident of Panzi Clinic, a remarkable facility in eastern Congo that manages, under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, to accommodate a small number of women who have survived excruciating acts of gender violence. For the sufferers who have heard of Panzi, post-rape, they will do anything to get there. Kika did. She crawled. It took her one month.

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You're in a country where everything feels different. The food isn't what you're used to; the people don't make sense. It's sensory overload and you're bewildered by all the things around you -- the language, the music, the faces, the smells.

It's hard to think about humanitarian travel without picturing Angelina Jolie and other high-profile volunteers. But how much do celebrities contribute to the growing appetite for volunteering away from home and is it all positive?

What is WWOOFing? Well, for short, it is your ticket to an incredible farming experience in one of over 50 countries in the world. Think of any country and they are likely to have WWOOF hosts there, ready to take you in with open arms.

Images of oil-soaked birds and turtles have prompted such a surge of interest in helping with the oil disaster response that one volunteer organization had to convert its fax line to a second phone line, and it's still having trouble keeping up with the calls.

The idea of volunteering away from home seems like a win-win to many travelers: a way to experience and help another community at the same time. But without a solid, well-designed program and reasonable expectations, volunteer travel can do more harm than good.

Whether you place the responsibility with Brangelina, Madonna or Meg Ryan, there is no denying the adoption of children from impoverished nations by celebrities and other westerners is becoming increasingly popular.

If you're the kind of person who's happiest spending your two weeks off helping to look after elephants in Thailand or working for free on an organic farm in New Zealand, then perhaps you've been on a volunteer vacation.